I’m at wit’s end with a problem I’ve having on the local office network. A single new laptop is having problems connecting to the local server (everyone else is working fine). All of the pc’s and the server have static IP’s, are in the same workgroup and have windows xp. The laptop is Home and the others are office… not sure if that matters.
From the new laptop:
I can ping the server by IP but not server name
nPing failed altogether (IP and dns)
tracert by IP was successful (1 hop)
same results no matter where I am on the network (even next to server in the networ), or if I’m using the wireless card or hard-wired.
the server can not ping the laptop but it can ping itself via ip or dns.
Any ideas on where to go with this? I’ve seen a ton of entries on this topic but not what to do when you’re in my spot. Many thanks in advance!
Subject: Can’t connect to server. Here is what I’ve tried, not sure where to go now
Like Thomas has said it looks like a dns problem. You could still connect to Notes server without it, but I suggest trying to resolve it, as it might give you some troubles in the future.As for setting the Notes connection now, you could do it in a few ways:
In C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc (WINDOWS directory can actually have different name, depending on version and how it was installed) you will find a file named hosts with no extension. Edit it with Notepad. At the bottom there is a line
127.0.0.1 localhost
under it you can add other addresses and names in the same manner - one in each line - and it will do a mapping. Watch out however, because hosts entries are checked before dns is at all.
when configuring Lotus Notes on your laptop say you don’t want to connect to the server. Then go to you local address book, create a new connection (or edit any existing one you want), make it Local Area, put the server’s name in, and on Advanced tab in Destination server address put the server’s IP address.
Subject: RE: Can’t connect to server. Here is what I’ve tried, not sure where to go now
Thanks for your help. I’m a former Notes admin and very familiar with the hosts files (and the problems that they can also create). I kinda ruled out adding a host file entry because creating a connection doc did not solve the problem, nor can I open the server by IP.
Subject: RE: Can’t connect to server. Here is what I’ve tried, not sure where to go now
I added an entry to my host file and I can now ping by the server dns name. However, still no love in either the client (I removed the connection doc and created a new location doc) or using the nPing tool (says that server is not responding). Any other ideas?
i also shut down Norton Antivirus on both the laptop and server.
Subject: RE: Can’t connect to server. Here is what I’ve tried, not sure where to go now
I expect that since every computer has static IP and you’ve checked the laptop with two different NICs (wireless and hard-wired) all of them - namely the PCs that work, the laptop and the server have the same DNS server address, and you’ve checked if they are given correctly. You know how it is when giving static address - sometimes you write one number too many and you end up with 100 instead of 10. What I would do now is: check the DNS (if you can). Maybe the laptop is registered not as it should be somehow. Delete it from the DNS, allow to reregister, and then try once again.
Eventually try setting up a different machine with WinXP Home and see if you encounter the same kind of trouble. It would be good if it was a fresh system, so you would know whether it’s WinXP Home that gives you trouble or something else.
If it turns out that you can work on WinXP I would reinstall the system on the laptop. It takes a few hours, but if you have anything strange on your machine, some leftover in the registry perhaps, it would all be cleared.
Subject: Can’t connect to server. It appears that it might be a problem with xp home
I completely uninstalled Notes 6.5 on the laptop and then copied over the notes.ini, address book and id’s from another (working) workstation. I then realized that this laptop can not hit any of our servers (even outside of the office). The problem is clearly on the laptop. Does anyone have any idea why this would happen?
It is a brand new compaq laptop. I verified that it was set not to compress or encrypt network data in notes settings.
Subject: RE: Can’t connect to server. Here is what I’ve tried, not sure where to go now
No to xp firewall on either machine. Even if there was, I would think that it would also effect the other pc’s (although as a good developer I know better than to assume!)